What’s New?

Direct Design Wins Another Diamond Award!

Direct Design and New England Federal Credit Union (NEFCU) won a 2015 Diamond Award for the branch redesign of HealthOne. This is the third Diamond Award for Direct Design’s work with NEFCU since 2007.

The awards were presented in April by the Credit Union National Association (CUNA) Marketing & Business Development Council, comprised of over 1,200 credit union marketing and business development professionals. Awards are given in each of 30 categories ranging from advertising to community events and beyond.

When NEFCU acquired the struggling Detroit-based HealthOne Credit Union in December 2014, they were committed to investing in the brand and bringing it up to NEFCU standards. NEFCU called on Direct Design to create a strong identity for HealthOne, while clearly integrating the new brand with NEFCU.

A tree graphic was designed to communicate the vitality and growth of HealthOne. The American Robin is the Michigan State Bird.

Listening for brand strengths
We made site visits to Detroit. We listened to HealthOne leadership, staff and members. They told us the strengths of the 60 year-old credit union, and what it meant to each of them. Inspired by its long history of serving health care workers, we created a new look and feel for the brand. We designed a new logo and identity and applied the new brand standards to their retail space, merchandising and digital assets.

HealthOne is a division of NEFCU, the largest credit union in Vermont, with over $1 billion in assets and 88,000 members.

Christopher Reck is a founding partner of Direct Design, Inc. and has been managing brands for numerous organizations for 27 years.